The father of an engineering student who was beaten to death at his university halls in Bangladesh has demanded justice for his son, as protests against politically motivated attacks on campuses continued.
Abrar Fahad, 22, who was allegedly targeted after he criticized the government on Facebook, was found dead at his university halls of residence in Dhaka on Monday.
It is claimed that he was attacked by students linked to the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), an influential student wing of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.
Photo: Reuters
Barkat Ullah, Fahad’s father, said his son had hoped to study a doctorate and wanted to serve his country.
“The university administration has to take strict measures to stop such incidents,” he said. “They should know what’s happening inside their dormitory. They have to hold them accountable. If they can do that, then maybe these kind of incidents will stop happening.”
Fahad’s death has caused outrage across the nation, prompting protests by students at universities in Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi, and demands for authorities to clampdown on political violence on campuses.
Human rights groups have condemned groups such as the BCL, which have been accused of beating student protesters and stifling debate.
Last year, students who had launched a protest calling for greater road safety were beaten with sticks and machetes in attacks widely blamed on the Awami League and its youth wing.
Authorities took no action against those carrying out the violence, but instead detained the protesting students, Human Rights Watch said.
A first-year student from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in Dhaka, where Fahad was studying, said students did not feel safe in the halls of residence.
“We never speak freely,” he said.
Fahad was in his second year at the most competitive university in the nation, where he was studying electrical and electronic engineering.
Friends said he was attacked because he had written a Facebook post criticizing deals signed during Hasina’s visit to India.
They included controversial deals on water sharing and on exporting petroleum gas to India, which many argued were not in the nation’s interests.
According to an autopsy report, he died of severe internal bleeding from beatings with blunt objects.
“Fahad was a very simple person. He had a naive mind. My son, he wanted to go abroad for higher study,” Ullah said.
Amnesty International described his murder as a “horrific crime that must be investigated immediately.”
“Abrar was only exercising his peaceful right to freedom of expression in his Facebook posts criticizing the government,” the human rights group said in a statement.
Hasina has promised justice to Fahad’s family. At least 11 students have reportedly been arrested in connection with his murder.
Hundreds of students and teachers on Wednesday took part in a silent procession at Fahad’s university in the capital.
A second student at the university, who also wished to remain anonymous, said that the humiliation and beatings of students had been repeatedly ignored.
“The ragging [bullying and beating] has always been a massive problem. For many past incidents, we reported them to authorities, but they never took any serious action, and this was a result of their negligence,” the student said. “The perpetrators never thought they’d face any consequences. It’s a shame that someone has to get killed to bring the issue under [the] spotlight.”
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is to meet US President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally would secure a more favorable trade deal before the deadline on Friday next week. Marcos would be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term. Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in trade talks even with close allies that Washington needs to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China. “I expect our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also
RSS